22 Apr
2005
22 Apr
'05
11:36 a.m.
DEC sold software listings on fiche, but not on paper.
A lot of that
software was either not available in machine readable form, or
ridiculously expensive. For example, RSTS or VMS listing fiche can
probably be found, but source kits of either are hard to come by. The
same only more so is likely to be true for "layered products"
(compilers etc.)
The VMS listings switched from fiche to CD when the fiche had
grown to nearly two boxes per release. AFAICT the CD source
listings kit has the same stuff that went into the fiche: the
.LST files.
There was a source kit, from which you could produce your
own VMS, but I believe that rather than being a $1K/annum
subscription, it was a $200K per release cost. I don't know
when the last one was done, but I do remember someone with
Engineering saying that they'll do another one when someone
actually asks.
I don't know if all layered product groups used fiche as
an archival medium, but I know that PSI, DECnet-RSX and
ALL-IN-1 did on at least some oocasions. Just as well really,
because I'm willing to bet that most of the archived source
tapes have ended up in the bit-bucker. I remember hearing
(probably via Bob Supnik) that DEC had a big clear out of
the archives that they were paying someone (Iron Mountain?)
to maintain.
Pity really, as I'd bet that the entirety of the sources
(and build tools etc.) for everything up to and including
the PDP-11 would have fit on a single CD, or at most, a
single DVD.
Antonio
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Antonio Carlini arcarlini at iee.org